TN Forest Dept requests Railway to demolish walls for elephants' movement

Chennai, Feb 7 The Tamil Nadu Forest Department has formally requested the Southern Railway to demolish concrete walls at five locations for the free movement of wild elephants.

The Chief Wildlife Warden of Tamil Nadu, Shekar Kumar Neeraj along with forest officials trekked along the railway line A and B in the Podanur-Madukkari stretch for 7 km on Sunday and conducted a detailed on the spot study on the issues faced by wild elephants.

Three elephants, including a calf, were killed by a speeding Mangalore-Chennai express in November 2021 and ever since the Southern Railway and the Forest Department have been on a collision course.

Confirming the development, Shekar Kumar Neeraj told that "measures for solar installation along railway line A have been taken".

He also said that residents of the area have informed the department that trains only blow horns occasionally which was against the standard operating procedure chalked out.

"We have found 30 retaining walls that are impairing the free movement of wild elephants and other wild animals. Elephant calves in most cases are not able to cross these walls. The plastic waste dumped across the railway tracks has also to be cleared as also food waste as animals including elephants reaches the railway tracks getting attracted at the smell of the food leftovers and get hit fatally by running trains."

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